Emergency transport returning to Fire Department

First announced June 2017

Emergency medial transport services are returning to the Taylor Fire Department after essentially being privatized for over six years. Mayor Rick Sollars and Fire Chief Stephen Portis authored a new program that will enable the TFD to begin ambulance services by the end of 2017. The City Council unanimously passed the resolution in June.

“Based on the future of the City and the future of the department, we feel that we’re in a good position to now do this,” Mayor Sollars said. “We could not have done this four years ago. We couldn’t have done it two years ago. But we feel that we can at this point.”

The City has not performed transportation services for medical emergencies for the past six years (with few exceptions). Under the previous administration transport responsibilities were eliminated from the Fire Department and were handled by HealthLink, which is headquartered in Taylor (and eventually turned into Beaumont). The cutback was one of many in the TFD during that era, which saw staffing levels cut by more than half at some points and a highly controversial political debate over a federal grant subsidy take place that pitted the previous council against the former mayor, which ended up in court.

Under Mayor Sollars, who took office in November 2013 (and is now running unopposed for a second, four-year term), the Fire staffing levels and administration were stabilized. Advanced Life Support certification was re-attained. And an extension of the original Federal Emergency Management Agency SAFER grant was approved. Another smaller SAFER grant was eventually accepted when the original extension ran out. That smaller grant will, too, run out later this summer. All the while, the Fire Department recertified and performed ALS functions, but actual transporting was left to HealthLink. 

The problem with that scenario is that the ambulance carrier is able to bill for services rendered, but the City was not. That meant that if the TFD responded and performed ALS functions, only HealthLink was paid. Negotiations between Taylor, HealthLink and other carriers could not bridge that financial gap, so Chief Portis turned his focus back to fire department-provided transport to fix the problem.

“With the SAFER grant expiring this year, we had to find a sustainable program that would capture these billable funds (which amount to approximately $1.2M each year),” he said. 

Under the new transport plan, the department will have three ambulances (two new, one refurbished) operating out of all three fire stations in the community. The department will also be able to use its newer Chevrolet Tahoe’s in emergency situations. Beaumont transport will also be available, although the TFD would takeover the No. 1 role in the program. 

“Department-provided transport will offer more experienced fire personnel on the scene of any medical emergency,” Chief Portis said. “We will also have the ability to capture the billable from the emergency response runs, which is a considerable amount of money and will serve an important role in the future financial structure of the department. And our department, under this plan, will accomplish the job of transporting with less staffing (down from 53 at one time to a projected 42).”

“This isn’t about politics, it’s about perseverance. We have a City Council that was supportive of this model and, over four years, helped work through the tough financial situation that the City was in. We got to a point, four years later, where we could consider this model.”